Culture

Editors' Picks: Would you invest in Google?

Once the darling of the Internet, search giant Google faces new competition and investor skepticism as it nears an IPO.

Aug. 18, 2004 12:38 p.m. PT

5 min read

Editors' Picks

Would you invest in Google?

Editors' picks

It's just one thing after another in the final run-up to Google's Nasdaq debut: the ill-timed Playboy interview with the co-founders, the SEC's probe into stock options granted to insiders. Now the search giant is letting some of the air out of its IPO valuation, dropping the share price from a high of $135 to between $85 and $95. At the lower price, will you be investing in Google--before or after the IPO? If you have already bid on the shares, email us.
August 18, 2004

Rocky road to the IPO

Once the Internet darling of the post-bubble days, Google has taken some hits in the weeks leading up to its IPO. Its high initial share price raised some eyebrows, but the attitude with which the company's two founders have approached the IPO and the Wall Street community in general may have done more damage. Certainly, a recent SEC filing that stated Google had illegally issued some shares, cast the darkest shadow over the company's path to its market--leading some analysts to wonder whether it would go public at all.

The Inquirer Google drops price range on IPO shares
CNET News.com Google IPO trading imminent
CNET News.com Google revealed in Playboy interview?
TheStreet.com Google IPO an unlikely lifeline for technology
CNN Money Google IPO: Not feeling lucky
CNET News.com Google IPO: No longer a sure thing?
CNET News.com Google may have issued shares illegally
The Motley Fool Yahoo! the first winner in Google IPO
CBS MarketWatch Google IPO loses luster amid Net downturn
Google-IPO.com Google IPO Central
Google Google's IPO page

Google's culture

Google is perhaps as well-known for its off-beat culture as it is for its breakthroughs in search technology. Located in Mountain View, Calif., the Googleplex is legendary for its fun-house-type atmosphere. The celebrity drop-ins, free meals in the cafeteria and biweekly roller hockey games make the Googleplex sound more like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory than a powerhouse of Internet engineers.

CNET News.com Gwyneth, the Grateful Dead and Google
San Jose Mercury News Googlers rest from road show at blowout bash
Wired News Quirky Google culture endangered?
CNET News.com Google recruits eggheads with mystery billboard
CNET News.com Google seeking a few good code jockeys
The New York Times Will Google culture get in the way of its IPO?

Google's business

Founded in 1996 during the dot-com whirlwind, Google managed to zig when others zagged and avoided a blow-out. In fact, its unassuming do-things-differently style has characterized the company's meteoric rise to the top of the search heap. But Google didn't start making real money until it cribbed from the business strategy of commercial search pioneer, Overture Services, formerly GoTo, with its launch of an auction-based, pay-per-click advertising service. It now earns more than $1 billion annually selling marketers little text ads that appear next to search results. What will it think of next to make the next billion?

Wired Magazine Google vs. Evil
Fast Company How Google grows...and grows...and grows
CNET News.com Exposing click fraud
CNET News.com Google?s man behind the curtain
CNET News.com The Google gods
eWeek Google acquires Picasa, fends off competition

The competition

Since Google came along and made millions by improving the Web search equation, new challengers claiming they're the "next Google" have cropped up almost every week. Little fish aside, Google's facing a whale of a fight from Web behemoths Yahoo and Microsoft, which are aggressively trying to turn their millions of visitors into loyalists by improving their search tools. Microsoft probably talks the biggest, threatening to use its dominance in operating systems to make searching the Web, e-mail, office applications and the desktop seamless.